Death of a Notion [View all]

[H2O Man]

“The beast in us must be wheedled: ethic is necessary, that we be not torn to pieces/”
Friedrich Nietzsche


Being old and feeble, I have more doctors' appointments than I care to think about. I've developed a technique to make them more pleasant: I start conversations about politics as soon as the medical professionals enter the room. Although each and every nurse and doctor knows I'm attempting to distract attention from why I'm there, the tactic is successful.

I remember back in January of 2017, one gentleman who was a registered republican at the time told me that he was confident that Donald Trump would rise to the occasion of being president. This was, I knew, a whimsical notion. It died within the next year, and by the time of the 2018 midterm elections, this doctor told me he had registered as an independent.

The “beast” we know as Donald Trump wheedled. He has no ethics. Rather, he is convinced that he is entitles to tear the Constitution to pieces in a manner that feeds his ego as it lines his pockets.

I have some friends and associates who have not shared my belief that the Democrats in the House of Representatives needs to impeach Donald Trump. Be patient, they have said, and focus upon the 2020 presidential election. Any impeachment would be sure to not only fail to result in a conviction in the republican-led Senate, but it would divide the country. It's safer and more prudent to wait to beat Trump at the ballot box.

Until this week, although I strongly disagreed with their concept of “safer” and “prudent,” I respected their right to their opinion. I wasn't sure how they thought impeachment would “divide” the country more than it very obviously already is. It seemed a strange notion.

Hopefully, in light of the news about the whistle blower, Trump's conversations with the leader of Ukraine, and the White House's attempt to bury the story, all Democrats will recognize that the notion we should wait until the 2020 elections has died.